


Eighth of Horisal

by Awesome_Sauce432



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: A Bit Of Reference To Beau's Shitty Parents, Birthday Presents, Birthdays, Fjord Gets Lowkey Introspective, Fluff, Gen, Just Two Kids Who Didn't Really Celebrate Birthdays Talking About Birthdays, Very Light Angst I Suppose?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 04:48:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18439358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awesome_Sauce432/pseuds/Awesome_Sauce432
Summary: Fjord doesn't really make a habit of keeping track of the date. Nor do most of the Mighty Nein. But as it turns out, when you don't keep track of the time of year, you might miss potentially important dates. Like the birthdays of your teammates. And missing birthdays can be irritating, even though Beau says she doesn't really care about hers.





	Eighth of Horisal

Somewhere between having to listen to Beau read smut as loudly as she could, and Caleb calling out what time it was  _ every single hour _ , Fjord was beginning to wish they’d chosen any other method of getting to Xhorhas  _ besides  _ going through a weirdass tunnel that was potentially filled with dangerous, deadly worm creatures or whatever. 

 

Once Beau got bored of trying to see if she could get him uncomfortable enough to strangle her so that she would shut up, she asked Caleb what day it was, figuring that if anyone would have been keeping track, it would be him. She was right, of course, with Caleb only needing to think for a moment before telling her the answer, the thirteenth of Horisal.

 

Beau had been thankfully quiet after that, and Fjord breathed a sigh of relief from where he’d retreated to, far in front of most of the others. The group fell into silence after that, the drudgery of the seemingly endless tunnels not lending itself well to interesting conversation. 

 

In a way, it was similar to when they’d been sailing on the ocean. On the days where there was nothing to do but go through the motions, nothing to look at but the blank sky above and the great expanse of the sea to every side. Sometimes it felt like the trip would never end, but eventually, Fjord would always find himself back to shore. Or he would wind up violently thrown off deck via explosion, but he wasn’t one to be pedantic. 

 

Thinking about the sea was filled with bittersweet feelings nowadays, tinged with both fond memories of his old ship and crew, and newer, perhaps not-so-fond memories of Avantika and Uk’otoa. Fjord wasn’t sure if he’d take sailing on an endless ocean over walking through an endless tunnel, but at least the ocean couldn’t collapse on top of him. 

 

“It’s ten o clock.” Caleb announced, either not noticing or pointedly ignoring Nott’s screeches in response.

 

“Alright, you know what, I think I’m about ready for bed.” Fjord stopped square in the middle of the tunnel, turning around to face the others. They all blinked back with varying levels of attentiveness. Yasha looked like she’d fallen asleep three hours ago, her legs still moving out of habit more than anything. 

 

They found a place to camp, everyone settling around within the bubble and picking a place to curl up, shuffling around in bedrolls and muttering to the others to scootch over or get their arms or legs or tail out of their face. Fjord, despite being the one to suggest going to bed to begin with, didn’t actually feel that tired. To be honest, he’d just wanted a break from all the walking. 

 

He laid down on his back, the wall of the bubble on one side and Beau rolled over on her side with her back facing him on the other. He closed his eyes but didn’t really go to sleep, just listened to the slowly steadying breaths of his companions, the rustling when one of them moved over, the unfortunately loud and unfortunately echoing snoring of Caduceus. 

 

After so long travelling with him Fjord was used to it by now, but now that he was focusing on it, he realised he’d forgotten how annoying it was. Still, even the snoring eventually became monotonous, and Fjord felt his own breathing begin to slow, his mind winding down into sleep itself through sheer boredom. 

 

Distantly, he felt Beau shuffle next to him, her breath catching a little bit, breaking the even rhythm it had been keeping up until now. It wasn’t unusual for any of the group to wake up at random points during the night, so Fjord didn’t pay it any mind, until he heard more rustling, sensing her sit up and then stand. 

 

He could feel the air shift around him, though he didn’t dare open his eyes even as she stepped carefully over his body, out past the safety of the bubble, and  _ now  _ he was paying attention. He waited a few moments until he was certain she was out before he opened his eyes.

 

Glancing at the others confirmed none of them were disturbed, and he wasn’t surprised. Beau could be shockingly stealthy when she wanted to be, and if he hadn’t already been awake, he doubted he’d have noticed either. Satisfied that everyone else was asleep, he looked out past the barrier of the bubble in the direction Beau had gone. 

 

It took him a few moments to find her in the darkness of the tunnel, and when he did he saw her scuffing at the ground and twirling her bo staff in her hands, almost aimlessly. Fjord’s eyebrows knitted together, watching her kick pebbles around for a while. She seemed subdued, her shoulders loose. But whenever her head turned in the direction of the bubble, he could see her face lined with tension, her lips tight and her eyes narrowed.

 

After a few minutes of nothing, she kicked one pebble particularly hard, sending it clattering against the wall. It hit and fell with a crack, and Beau noticeably stiffened, her head flicking towards the bubble as if waiting for someone to come out. 

 

Fjord stayed where he was, knowing Beau couldn’t actually see inside of it while she remained outside. Usually, when Fjord or one of the others woke up the middle of the night, they might walk around a bitch and stretch their legs before returning to the bubble, rarely venturing very far. But something about Beau’s demeanor struck a twinge of curiosity in Fjord. She seemed less bored and unable to sleep, and more frustrated about something. Beau did get frustrated at a lot of things, so he liked to think he’d gotten relatively good at figuring out when she was. 

 

Seeming satisfied that no one had woken up, Beau went back to her pebble kicking, this time with a little more fervor. Where usually kicking or hitting things might make her feel better, she only seemed to get more incensed as time went on, her scuffs kicking up dust and pebbles rattling on the cave walls. Fjord couldn’t help but wonder what had gotten her riled up when they’d had an utterly boring day. 

 

Eventually, his curiosity (and a bit of concern) won out over his general inclination towards letting his friends be when they were having a moment. He walked out of the bubble as stealthily as he could but saw Beau’s head swivel towards him in the darkness.

 

She wasn’t wearing her night vision goggles, so she probably couldn’t tell who it was, but she’d definitely noticed he was there. “Hey Beau, that you kicking rocks?” 

 

He figured it was probably better to pretend he hadn’t known she’d been doing for this past ten minutes at least, walking up to her. 

 

“Fjord?” Beau didn’t sound particularly emotional about anything. If anything, she sounded a bit sheepish. “Shit, did I wake you up?”

 

“I suppose. I’ve been sleeping light anyway, it’s no big deal.” Fjord shrugged, mostly for his own benefit. “Walking all day is boring as fuck.”

 

Beau snorted, her arms folded but her stance a bit more relaxed than it had been a few moments ago. “Yeah. Makes me wish for something to fight.”

 

“Do  _ not  _ wish that, we will end up walking into half a dozen giants and dying horribly.” They both kept their voices down, and Beau quickly stifled her snicker, covering her mouth and casting a glance back in the general direction of the bubble every time she spoke. “Anyway, what are you doin out here?”

 

Predictably, Beau shrugged, running a hand through her hair. “Couldn’t sleep. Being in these tunnels stresses me out.”

 

“It’s been a stressful few days.” Fjord nodded his head, grimacing a little. Between the state of Felderwin, meeting Luke, Nott telling them about her life and… death… yeah, stressful was one way to put it. 

 

“Yeah.” Beau’s voice trailed off, her shoulders stiffening. Fjord let the silence hang there for a few moments, hearing Beau breathe in sharply. “Did you know it was Horisal?” 

 

“Hmm?” Fjord started a little, having not quite expected a question like that. “I… I suppose not. Haven’t really been keeping track of the date.”

 

“Me neither. I don’t any of us have, except Caleb. If it weren’t for his freakishly perfect memory, we’d have no idea.” Beau’s voice had an odd quality to it, like she was gritting her teeth together, trying to hold back something she actually wanted to say. 

 

“I guess so. Huh.” Fjord kept his own voice casual, mulling over the date Caleb had said it was earlier in the day. Had Beau been thinking about it since then? “What’s got you worried about the date?”

 

When Beau next spoke again, it was almost monotonous, like she wasn’t quite sure what emotion to attach to it and so settled for none at all. “It was my birthday five days ago.” 

 

Fjord blinked. Oh. “Happy birthday?” 

 

Beau chuckled, quickly covering her mouth to block the sound. “Weird, right? I completely missed it. We must’ve been… it must’ve been like the day after we left Alfield. The eighth.” 

 

The eighth of Horisal. Huh. Fjord mentally filed that face away in the little box in his brain assigned to facts about Beau, which was surprisingly sparse and mostly contained odd snippets and throwaway tidbits of information she’d shared with the group, plus the conversation they’d had about her family and her brother. 

 

“I think you’re probably the first person ever to actually wish me a happy birthday.” Beau continued without prompting, and now Fjord looked at her properly. She was staring out at the dark, her face relatively impassive. 

 

“The first? You didn’t celebrate birthdays much as a kid?” 

 

“Nope. I’m pretty sure the day I was born is one of the most disappointing days in my parents' entire lives. The last thing they wanted to do was celebrate the anniversary of it.” Beau was tapping her fingers on her arm, a dry smile on her face. “And the monks weren’t particularly bothered with them either.” 

 

“I didn’t do much birthday celebrations either, to be honest.” Fjord admitted, earning a quick side-eye from Beau. “They, uh, didn’t know my actual birthday, so I kind of just picked a random day and went with it. Didn’t do much, but at least I had it.” 

 

“That… that sucks, dude.” Fjord could see Beau cringing in the dark, and Fjord cleared his throat.

 

“Wasn’t so bad. Hardly anyone around me did birthdays either. You upset you missed yours?” 

 

Beau shrugged, before tilting her head and seeming to consider it. “I don’t know. I hated it growing up and then I just… tried to ignore it. Another year of the world being shitty, I guess. But it feels weird, knowing that it happened and I just didn’t notice at all.” 

 

“How old did you turn?” 

 

“Twenty four, I guess.” Fjord nodded slowly, not particularly surprised by that. 

 

“Well, now that I know I was the first, my ‘happy birthday’ to you feels a bit lackluster.” He said, for lack of anything else to really say. He was rewarded with a few snickers, and Beau reached out an arm, fumbling in the dark for a few moments before finding his arm and patting it loosely. 

 

“Don’t worry about it. It’s just a dumb birthday. It just bugged me.” She said, turning around and squinting in the direction of the bubble. “I think I’m gonna go back to sleep now.” 

 

Fjord watched her go, waiting by himself for only a second or two before following. They were both silent once they got back inside the bubble, shuffling back into their bedrolls. Beau mumbled a hushed goodnight under her breath once they were settled, which Fjord returned before rolling over and actually trying to go to sleep.

 

Except this time, his thoughts refused to let him rest. It had been a long time since he’d thought about his own birthday, much less anyone else’s. He remembered when Nott had told the rest of them that goblins didn’t even have birthdays, and they’d all given her one on the spot. Fjord supposed Nott had been lying when she told them that, since he was fairly sure halflings did have birthdays.

 

He wondered if they’d missed anyone else’s birthday, while they’d been busy travelling or fighting or trying not to get their asses killed every day. Caleb was probably the only one who knew for certain what day it was at any given time, but who knew if he’d speak up if it was his own birthday. Yasha didn’t seem like the type to be big on birthdays, and Caduceus was a mystery all to himself. Jester probably  _ would  _ make a big deal of it, but since she hadn’t said anything when Caleb had mentioned the date, it seemed likely they hadn’t yet reached hers. 

 

It was a weird thing to be focusing on, but he couldn’t push it out of his head. Growing up, he’d always known that lots of other kids would celebrate their birthdays. Their parents would take them out to buy sweets or their favourite pastry or something, and they’d get away with being a bit more cheeky and when they got home perhaps there’d be a new toy or book waiting for them. An anniversary of being born, a happy day. 

 

Of course, Fjord had never really celebrated his birthday, not his real one (whenever that was) nor the one he’d adopted for himself. He’d always assumed that was an experience shared mostly by other orphans, so hearing Beau almost offhandedly chat about how her own birthday had been almost the exact opposite of a happy anniversary to celebrate threw him for a bit of a spin. If she’d never even been wished a happy birthday, he doubted she got anything even close to resembling presents either. 

 

In the long run, birthdays were a fairly inconsequential thing. Just another marker of another year passed. But Fjord knew that they could mean more than that, for better or for worse. 

 

* * *

 

 

“Uh, what’s up?” Beau asked, one eyebrow raised after Fjord had pulled her aside while most of the others either fussed over the moorbounders or kept a careful eye on their surroundings.

 

They were stopping in the forest of the Ghostlands for the night, and Fjord wanted to do this quickly before they all settled down in Caleb’s bubble. So without wasting any more time, he opening up his bag of holding and reached inside, pulling out a bundle of fresh blue wrappings.

 

“These are for you.” He said, holding them out in front of her. Beau blinked down at them for a few moments, before looking back up at Fjord, waiting for some kind of punchline. When none came, she looked back down at the wrappings.

 

“Thanks…? I don’t get it, why’d you get these?” Her eyes were narrowed slightly, and Fjord quickly shifted her gaze to where the others were, noting that none of them were paying particularly close attention. 

 

“For your birthday.” He said simply, shrugging his shoulders. 

 

“Like-like a present?” Beau seemed torn between staring and bursting into laughter.

 

“Why yes, actually, presents are generally what people give you on your birthday.” Fjord drawled, and now Beau did allow herself to snicker, though she accepted the gift.

 

“Dude, I didn’t ask for a present. I don’t even care about my birthday.” 

 

Cared enough to be annoyed about it when you realised you’d missed it, Fjord thought to himself, though he didn’t say it aloud. Instead, he just shrugged again. 

 

“I know.” He honestly wasn’t quite sure himself why he’d decided to do it. He’d been shopping with Jester and the others and one of the shops had been stocked with ropes, bandages and hand wrappings. A lot of Beau’s had been burned in the tunnels when she’d pulled Nott from the lava, or stained beyond repair when she’d ripped a heart out of a demon thing. Then he remembered Beau talking about her missed birthday and his own brief musings on how she’d probably not gotten any presents for her birthday throughout her life.

 

He’d never gotten any birthday presents either, so perhaps he was just projecting the wishes of his far younger self onto Beau. Either way, by the time he stopped to think about it, he’d already bought them. 

 

“You deserve nice new ones anyway. They’re even blue.” He said.

 

Beau smirked, looking down at the wrappings and tucking them into her bag. “Yeah, they are. Thanks, Fjord.” 

 

She paused for a moment, looking over towards the others. “You didn’t tell the others, did you? I don’t want it to be like… a thing.” 

 

Fjord shook his head. “Nah. If you wanted it to be a thing, you would’ve announced it right when after Caleb had told you the date.” He paused, mouth quirking up into a smile. “I mean, I’m sure Jester would love to throw you a party. Maybe we could get the Bright Queen to host.” 

 

“Pft, that’d be the day.” Beau snickered. “The Queen of the Krynn Empire holding a birthday party for  _ me _ .”

 

“You never know.” Fjord held up his hands in mock surrender, exhaling. “Happy birthday. Well, belated, but you get the idea.”

 

“Yeah, I do.” Beau was still smiling before her eyebrows knitted together and she looked up at Fjord. “Hang on, when’s  _ your _ birthday?” 

 

“Twenty-eighth of Thunsheer, why?” Fjord raised an eyebrow. “That’s what I decided, anyway.” 

 

“Well, now I’ve got to get  _ you  _ a present for your birthday. That’s how it works, right?” Beau seemed genuinely confused by the possibility, and Fjord had to think.  _ Was  _ it a rule that if someone got you a birthday present, you had to get one for them? Who knew.

 

“I mean… I’m certainly not opposed to getting presents.” He grinned at the idea, which he hadn’t considered but now found quite appealing. 

 

“Don’t be expecting like a magic wand or anything,” Beau said quickly. 

 

“I’m not, don’t worry. I’m rather chuffed you even thought about my birthday.” Fjord said genuinely, and Beau blundered for a few moments, the way she sometimes did when faced with open emotions she wasn’t quite sure how to deal with.

 

“ _ Well _ , you didn’t get to really celebrate your birthday either, so now you do. Fuck you.” 

 

“I think that’ll be mighty nice.” Fjord smiled, and Beau folded her arms, though she was still smiling. “I’ll have to make sure not to miss yours the next time it comes around.” 

 

Beau’s smile widened, and she began undoing her current hand wrappings, which were fairly ratty from being used far beyond their regular lifespan. She seemed excited by the possibility of perhaps getting another present next year. Having her birthday be actually celebrated for once. “Yeah. Uh, that’d be cool. Really cool.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Look this started off as me fixating on Beau's newly canon, official age of 24 since we all thought she was 22/23, and ended up as me musing on how Beau and Fjord probably never celebrated their birthdays due to Circumstances and that made me SAD so they're buying birthday presents for each other now take that sadness
> 
> Also this is the second story I've written where someone has a Nighttime Talk With Beau While They're Walking In The Tunnels because damnit the tunnels were a MISSED OPPORTUNITY  
> SO MANY BEAUTIFUL CONVERSATIONS COULD'VE BEEN HAD


End file.
